Mosta will have a change of guard after Saturday’s election only just delivered a majority of Nationalist Party councillors despite the Labour Party winning a relative majority of first count votes.

Vote counting was a photo finish as Labour’s initial 14-vote lead was eroded to an insurmountable lead of 146 votes for the PN in the 12th count when Alternattiva Demokratika’s candidate dropped from the race.

In local elections, unlike the general election where a majority of first count votes is automatically translated into a majority of seats, the final composition of councils is determined by vote transfers.

In Mosta, the PN elected six councillors against Labour’s five and Shirley Farrugia will be the new mayor.

The tide shifted definitively when AD candidate Robert Callus dropped from the race with 286 votes to his name.

The last surviving PL candidate inherited 40 votes while PN candidates inherited 121 votes. Another 125 votes were not transferable.

Mosta was the only council that shifted to blue from red and provided one of a few consolations to the PN, which lost its council majorities in Safi, Qala and St Paul’s Bay.

In St Paul’s Bay, another locality at the centre of a heated electoral campaign, the PL won by 53.4 per cent. But history was made here when Mario Salerno, a Labour candidate, entered the election as outgoing Kirkop mayor and emerged as the newly-elected mayor of St Paul’s Bay where he contested for the first time.

A number of incumbent mayors lost their post to new candidates from the same party with the most notable being Qormi where Labour newcomer Rosianne Cutajar outperformed former mayor Jesmond Aquilina. In Marsa, Labour candidate Christopher Spiteri outdid the long-standing former mayor Francis Debono.

The Qormi result caused a stir among Labour candidates in the locality and the outgoing mayor was even heard complaining about the result at the Naxxar counting hall.

Paola, a Labour council, will also have a new mayor as Roderick Spiteri beat former mayor Dominic Grima, and Sliema, a locality mired in controversy, will have a new Nationalist mayor – Anthony Chircop.

In Sliema, Julian Galea, the only former PN councillor to contest again and who was involved in controversy after recordings of him expressing disdain against Labourites were made public, was the last one to be elected, after polling 233 first count votes.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com

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